MANILA –– Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Arthur Tugade said the government is making sure that critical infrastructure projects will be in place before the end of the Duterte administration, to help improve the lives of Filipinos.
During the Presidential Communications Operations Office’s (PCOO) “The Presser: Dutertenomics 2.0” confab in Pasay City, Tugade said the administration targets to complete all infrastructure projects by 2022.
He said these projects include upgrading of all existing transportation infrastructures and building new ones.
“The President said: make the Filipino lives comfortable. And as you make it comfortable, make sure that you put up these infrastructures,” the DOTr chief said.
Tugade noted that his agency has been busy modernizing existing airports in the country while exploring possibilities to add more airports.
He also mentioned that the administration has been aggressive in implementing railway projects.
The government targets to expand railway infrastructure throughout the country by 2022 to reach 1,900 kilometers from the 77-km existing railways currently in operation.
From only having four rail systems such as the Manila Light Rail Transit System or the LRT-1 and LRT-2, the Manila Metro Rail Transit System or the MRT3, and the Philippine National Railways (PNR), the government has 10 railway projects being constructed.
Ongoing construction include MRT-7, LRT-2 Extension, and Common Station, while construction for PNR Clark, PNR Calamba, PNR Bicol, LRT-1 Extension, Subic-Clark Cargo Railway, Metro Manila Subway, and Mindanao Railway will be started during this administration, Tugade said.
“This year all the loan arrangement for the Japanese portion of the railroad projects are all in place. So that by this year, the subway [and] the rail movement from Tutuban to Clark and from Tutuban to Calamba, all these will be started, inaugurated within the year,” he noted.
Tugade added that Filipinos will experience the subway ride before the end of Duterte administration.
“Before 2022, end of all this infrastructure will all be in place. Why is this so? Because we want to make the Filipino lives comfortable following the mandate of the President,” said Tugade. (PNA)
